@fairchild/var/log

[Fairchild]

@Fairchild/var/log/014.log # Time 1 September 827 A.S. 18:29 SMT # Location Planet Manhattan, New York # Involvement • CV-Palantir • Little.Trashmaid • Kira.Walarago

<Kira.Walargo> Good day. <Kira.Walargo> Taking a look at the other side of Manhatten? Considering it's rotating, I don't think the view is much different. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Oh, it's just a little more quiet on this side. <Little.Trashmaid> Hey, Oddball. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Good day, Silverstone. <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: Greetings. <Kira.Walargo> Probably true, although you still get the transmissions. <Little.Trashmaid> Still celebrating your reunion, i see? <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: Depends, have you got any alcohol? <Little.Trashmaid> WOAH! <Little.Trashmaid> She can talk now! <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: Indeed. <Little.Trashmaid> A proper sentence, that was a proper sentence! <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: When you use an AI language model with no proper nouns, it is quite hard to talk properly. <Little.Trashmaid> Alcohol, alcohol... hell, i suppose there is some in those crates. <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: Also, I feel like I should thank you for getting me here. <Little.Trashmaid> Aww, now you look a bit... <Little.Trashmaid> You know, that was cute. <Little.Trashmaid> Now you are less cute. I suppose. <Little.Trashmaid> Wasn't that hard really, i wonder if there is anything to thank me for. <Little.Trashmaid> *Scratches his cheek.* I wonder if i will miss that weird part of you. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Well, even if the deed was not particularly great, the results are still very good. <Little.Trashmaid> Good to see you are doing fine. <Little.Trashmaid> So, what are your plans now? <CV-Palantir> Nik: Well. Good question. <Little.Trashmaid> Don't tell me you did not have any plans other than saving her. <CV-Palantir> Nik: That was the highest priority, of course. <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: We should probably focus on rebuilding the Foundation. <Little.Trashmaid> Oh come on. I don't know, ask her for a date on some resort planet... huh? <CV-Palantir> Nik: Yes, with Avery's death and Forlorn's shattering, there isn't much left of it. <Little.Trashmaid> Foundation? <Kira.Walargo> Forlorn? <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: The Vergil Foundation. <Kira.Walargo> And.. "shattering"? <Little.Trashmaid> Don't tell me you are going to repeat Stenn's and Blueberry's thingy. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Well, perhaps too much of a poetic way to put it. <CV-Palantir> Nik: I was not around when Forlorn decided to disappear, you know. <Little.Trashmaid> What's Vergil anyway? I don't think Blueberry ever told me about it. <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: It's a brain-machine interface. <Little.Trashmaid> Huh. <Little.Trashmaid> I am... not sure what to think of it. <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: It's not complicated, really. <Little.Trashmaid> *Shrugs audibly.* If you say so. <Kira.Walargo> Just a few wires in your skull. <Kira.Walargo> Hah. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Not wires, nanites. <Little.Trashmaid> Maybe you'll be of more use to me than Nicole was. <Kira.Walargo> I'd rather try that on someone else first. <Little.Trashmaid> Sometime. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Vergil is the only thing that really keeps me in touch with reality at this point. <Kira.Walargo> Oh, of course, my bad. Nanites. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Speaking of, Miss Walargo. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Why did you seem surprised at my mentioning of Forlorn? <Little.Trashmaid> Suppose i'll be calling you Riddle for a while now. <Kira.Walargo> Uh... hard to describe. That word means something, but I can't put my finger on it. <Little.Trashmaid> Say, Riddle, how good is that nanites thingy? <Little.Trashmaid> Or, rather, how finished is it? I might habe some use for it. <CV-Palantir> Nik: I was referring to Forlorn Hope, a mercenary group that was active a couple of years ago. <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: Vergil is quite finished. <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: The whitepaper and technical spec is open-source and freely available on the Net. <Little.Trashmaid> Huh. Can it dig up one's memories, then? <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: As long as you have the appropriate materials, you are able to make your own. <Kira.Walargo> Yeah, yeah... makes sense. They disappeared, then? <CV-Palantir> Nik: Yeah. Well. At least I think so, I haven't heard from Stenn or the rest. <Kira.Walargo> Stenn was the leader? <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: Depends what you mean. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Seemed like one. <Little.Trashmaid> He and Blueberry. His girlfriend. <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: We haven't had much contact with them individually, Stenn was something of an interface between- <Little.Trashmaid> I mean making one remember things one does not. <CV-Palantir> -me and the rest. <Kira.Walargo> Hm. Well, thanks. Maybe I'll figure out why that feels familiar. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Err... <CV-Palantir> Nik: Yes... somewhat. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Memories are a rather complicated beast, but it can extend your memory capability somewhat. <Little.Trashmaid> No-no-no. I don't need to extend it. <Little.Trashmaid> It is as extended as it gets, i suppose. <Little.Trashmaid> I just need to sort up things that do not make sense and recall things i don't. <Little.Trashmaid> Used to bother Nicole with that, but now she is not around. <Kira.Walargo> You really wanna let some robots dig around in your brain? <Little.Trashmaid> Why not? <CV-Palantir> Nik: Well, if you want to recover something that's from before you ingest Vergil, I'm afraid that's not possible. <Kira.Walargo> I value my brain, I'd be in big trouble if it got damaged. <Little.Trashmaid> Aww, hell. Like, really-really impossible? <Little.Trashmaid> *Shrugs audibly.* Well, if anything, i suppose noone will miss me. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Well, I don't know of anything that would work, let's put it that way. <Kira.Walargo> That might actually be true. <Kira.Walargo> Maybe put in a custom order, you said you got enough cash. <Little.Trashmaid> Huh. Slightly more problematic than i hoped it to be. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Though, well. <Little.Trashmaid> Suppose i still have a couple of billions, why? <CV-Palantir> Nik: Vergil is an open standard, if you can find capable programmers who can somehow use it to retrieve- <Kira.Walargo> *She shrugs* Can't you use that to pay people to work it out? <CV-Palantir> -memories from a mindmap, that might interest even me, because I don't know how such a thing could be done. <Little.Trashmaid> Look, sweety. The only one i knew and wished to work with was Nicole Hunter. <Little.Trashmaid> Egg-heads of her scale don't just grow on trees, you know. <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: I would caution against dealing with Cardamine-infested scum. <Little.Trashmaid> She wasn't a scum, though? <Kira.Walargo> *She chuckles* I'm not familiar with her. <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: Except with tachyon to the face. <Little.Trashmaid> Aww, we tried to kill each other a couple of times. But we grew bigger than that. <Little.Trashmaid> Besides, i am not into killing. <Kira.Walargo> In any case, you can either use that cash to figure out who could solve the problem and pay them to solve it, or you can just- <Kira.Walargo> sit on the problem that seems to bother you so much. <Little.Trashmaid> Been bothering me for a while, really. So i am sort of used to it and not in any kind of hurry. <Kira.Walargo> Fair enough. <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: Also, not to rain on anyone's parade, but we can't make any Vergil nodes at the minute. <Little.Trashmaid> Hmm. <Little.Trashmaid> Well, whatever. Do you know a... hell, how do you even call those people? <Little.Trashmaid> Brain-doctors? <Little.Trashmaid> That kind of a person. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Neuroscientists. <Little.Trashmaid> Yep. <Little.Trashmaid> Do you know any? <CV-Palantir> Nik: I only really know myself. <Kira.Walargo> Oh, that's a lot of Rheinbeer! <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: I remember one from the Foundation days called Regis. Nerva Regis. I'm not sure if he's around anymore. <Kira.Walargo> I'm sure they are. <Little.Trashmaid> *Scratches his cheek once more.* Suppose it's easier for me to find a way to use it than to look for yet another Nicole, <Little.Trashmaid> afterall. Surroundings seem to run dry on Nicoles anyway. <Little.Trashmaid> And no, i'd rather not work with Nerva, if possible. <Little.Trashmaid> Neither this one, nor Hans-Von-Something, nor... well, you get the idea. <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: Never heard of that other one. <Little.Trashmaid> I prefer those who are allergic to tentacles, thank you. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Well, I mean... <Kira.Walargo> Hello there. <CV-Palantir> Nik: In terms of neuroscience and microbiology, you would be hard pressed to find a scientist with more experience than myself. <CV-Palantir> Nik: I am /fairly/ certain that with the current understanding of the human brain, the operation you're interested in <CV-Palantir> -is not quite possible. <Little.Trashmaid> You are too young to know, sweety. But if you are really interested, look for "KNF-113th-cutie-and-a-squid" on neuralnet. <CV-Palantir> Nik: /However/ if you found an expert in AI, you might be able to construct a model that analyses a brainmap retrieved from- <CV-Palantir> -Vergil and derives something meaningful from it. <Little.Trashmaid> No-no-no-no-no. <Little.Trashmaid> Very no. <Little.Trashmaid> No experts in AIs any more, thank you. <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: Hm? <Little.Trashmaid> I have enough problems with my own toaster, no need to add another one. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Not every AI is the same, you know. <Little.Trashmaid> That's what she... IT says. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Well, call it what you like, AI, machine learning, neural network algorithm... <Little.Trashmaid> So yeah. <Little.Trashmaid> I'd rather work with human beings. <Little.Trashmaid> Hell, ain't i picky. <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: You seem to have a rather science-fiction understanding of what AI is. <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: I don't believe Nik is talking about a general AI with a language model like your on-board secretary. <Little.Trashmaid> Look, it's hardly a laughing matter, but i had one run away from me back when i retired. <Little.Trashmaid> AND it took my whole damn cruiser along. <CV-Palantir> Nik: I was not tallking about that kind of AI. <Little.Trashmaid> So no, no more AIs. <Little.Trashmaid> I have a messed up and moody flight assistance system here, and it's more than enough troubles already. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Your loss. <Little.Trashmaid> Maybe. But i had Nicole trying to fix that thing. <Little.Trashmaid> And after that it's even more problematic than it is technically supposed to be. <Little.Trashmaid> So yeah. <CV-Palantir> Nik: You could just turn it off, you know. <Little.Trashmaid> That's what i thought, too. Turned off lifesupports, comms and pretty much everything onboard along with it. <Little.Trashmaid> Damn spacesuit servos, too. <Little.Trashmaid> Why does it even have any access to my spacesuit servos?! <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: Eh, corporate software. <Little.Trashmaid> Well, maybe. <Little.Trashmaid> And after i did that and grabbed a smaller craft - the damn thing kept following me - <Little.Trashmaid> for a whole day, Playing a buzzer non-stop. <Little.Trashmaid> So yeah, suppose i can call it childhood trauma. <Little.Trashmaid> Imagine you former craft, following your new ship and buzzing. <Little.Trashmaid> Till you board it again. <CV-Palantir> Nik: To be clear, AI in its basic meaning is nothing like what you're dealing with. <CV-Palantir> Nik: And it might be the solution to your problem. <CV-Palantir> Nik: In fact, as far as I can tell, it might be the only solution to your problem. <Little.Trashmaid> How's that even supposed to work, then? <Little.Trashmaid> Like, in your opinion. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Well, all right. This might take a moment to explain, but bear with me. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Conventional, algorithmic programming is concerned with using a mapping to find outputs for given inputs. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Machine learning is concerned with using inputs and outputs to find a mapping for given inputs. <CV-Palantir> Nik: In simple terms, it means creating a model that can understand a particular kind of input and a particular kind of output. <Little.Trashmaid> So, you are saying, your daily onboard AI is supposed to do B when you press A. <Little.Trashmaid> Maybe a complex B for a complex A. <CV-Palantir> Nik: If you feed it enough data, it will eventually be able to more-or-less accurately predict an output for a given input. <CV-Palantir> Nik: That's what specialised AI is for. <Little.Trashmaid> And what if someone programs it to... well, do stuff? <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: That's what we, in the business, call a "big no-no". <Little.Trashmaid> You know, corporate guys, private military engineers, anything. <Little.Trashmaid> Eh? How so? <CV-Palantir> Nik: AI models are ultimately based on probability. <CV-Palantir> Nik: And the probability is never 100%. <Little.Trashmaid> *Shrugs audibly.* Suppose my toaster never acted the way you describe, then. <Little.Trashmaid> But what of it? And what am i supposed to do with it? <CV-Palantir> Nik: What do you mean? <Little.Trashmaid> Exactly wha i asked. <Little.Trashmaid> What am i supposed to do with my junk in that case? <CV-Palantir> Nik: Are we talking about your broken onboard AI or your memories now. I stopped following. <Little.Trashmaid> It runs all of the toys i own. And i don't think it acts like what you described. <Little.Trashmaid> Well, both, why not. You seem to be a scientist, so do science? <Little.Trashmaid> My memory is one thing, my property is another. <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: As for the AI, buy a new ship. Preferably one that's not powered by corporate software. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Well... That. <Little.Trashmaid> *Shrugs audibly.* Blocks my access to bank account each time i try to do that. <CV-Palantir> Nik: And, as for the memories, the path I would pursue would be to find someone versed in programming machine learning- <CV-Palantir> -models. <CV-Palantir> Nik: So, if you recall what I said what machine learning is, it's using inputs and outputs to find a mapping. <Little.Trashmaid> I mean, i can technically get some actual cash and try to buy a new ship. But i should leave the old one somewhere. <Little.Trashmaid> Last time i did the thingy ran and followed me. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Inputs are raw brainmaps from Vergil at any given moment, outputs are feeds from the interfaces that you- <CV-Palantir> -are expecting to get. So like, if the memory you need to find is what you saw in a given moment, you'd correlate- <CV-Palantir> -the mindmaps with feed from your eyes that Vergil can capture and save as regular data. Like photos, essentially. <CV-Palantir> Nik: You feed those through the model and eventually you'll be able to map stuff that you don't remember. <CV-Palantir> Nik: At least that's how I would go about that. <Little.Trashmaid> Huh. *Sighs.* Suppose i need a more practical example to understand it properly. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Well, the high-school-course example in modelling machine learning AIs is recognition of handwriting. <CV-Palantir> Nik: You create a model that is fed /known/ pictures of digits along with the information what that digit is. <Little.Trashmaid> That's simple, i can understand that much. <CV-Palantir> Nik: So a picture of a crudely drawn six is your input, and the literal number six is your output. <CV-Palantir> Nik: You feed those enough, eventually the model will be able to accurately predict handwriting that you haven't given- <CV-Palantir> -it previously. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Substitute the handwriting for a mindmap and the digits for raw pictures or sounds, and you get a model that- <Little.Trashmaid> But what if i have no idea of what would the proper input or output be? <CV-Palantir> -can, in theory, predict memories from mindmaps. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Well, you'd need a machine learning expert to help you figure that out, I'm not one. <Little.Trashmaid> Huh. Even if i do not remember anything past a certain point in the past? <Little.Trashmaid> Jeez. So i -will- need another Nicole, afterall. <Little.Trashmaid> That's problematic. <CV-Palantir> Nik: I mean, there is also a possibility that it's just not there. <CV-Palantir> Nik: If you underwent some kind of electroshock therapy or other barbaric practice of that sort that wiped a part of your brain <CV-Palantir> then that's that. <CV-Palantir> Nik: You can't make something out of nothing, that's the domain of the divine. <Little.Trashmaid> Huh. <Little.Trashmaid> *Scratches his cheek.* Well, that might be it, but... <Little.Trashmaid> Ah, no point in thinking about it too much if can't do a thing. <Little.Trashmaid> What about the property stuff, then? Selling it would be the only option? <Little.Trashmaid> I mean, those are nice crafts and i am sort of used to my toys. <Little.Trashmaid> It's just that they sometimes act weird. <CV-Palantir> Nik: That's how using proprietary software ends. <CV-Palantir> Nik: You're at the mercy of whoever sold it to you to fix it. <CV-Palantir> Nik: If you can't find them or they're out of business, you're out of luck. <Little.Trashmaid> Well, it wasn't really "sold", but still... <Little.Trashmaid> Na-ah, i'd rather not go and start looking for the developers. <Little.Trashmaid> Sounds more of a problem than what i already have. <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: That's somewhat of a reason why Cryer still tries to hunt us down. <Little.Trashmaid> *Scratches his cheek.* Stalemate, i suppose. A stalemate that somehow sits nicely within me. <Little.Trashmaid> Oh? What did you do? <CV-Palantir> Nik: Well, Vergil was originally a Cryer-Ageira joint venture. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Or rather, it originated in a subsidiary of Cryer called Wisp Innovations. And Ageira was brought on board. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Long story short, they wanted to keep it closed down. I figured that'd be quite disastrous and I did not want that- <Little.Trashmaid> Huh. <CV-Palantir> -responsibility. <Little.Trashmaid> Means we both snatched our things somewhere. <Little.Trashmaid> Hah! <CV-Palantir> Nik: When Wisp was took over by Cryer, I deleted their backups and took the code with me to finish it on my own. <CV-Palantir> Nik: And with the Foundation's help we released it into the wild. Sort of. <CV-Palantir> Nik: It still requires some specialised material to manufacture, but the underlying hardware schematics,- <CV-Palantir> -firmware and basic software is free and open source. <Little.Trashmaid> Does not matter much when you don't know what to do with it, i suppose. <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: Well, Vergil is why I can talk again. <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: Granted, it was also the reason why I could not talk for a while, but bygones. <CV-Palantir> Nik: Yeah, I'm still not a hundred percent sure how I feel about that. <Little.Trashmaid> *Shrugs audibly.* I still find that weird manner of speech cute and miss it. <Little.Trashmaid> But yeah, good to know you are all better now. <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: Wire a crappy BT-2 language model to the constellation AI and you can get one all on your own. <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: For me it was torture, so I'm glad it's over now. <Little.Trashmaid> *Yawns* Well, suppose i'll take a nap now and get back to stalking you two a bit later. <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: Enjoy. <Little.Trashmaid> Take care, don't do anything way too weird. <CV-Palantir> Fairchild: And thanks again for getting me out of Delta. <Little.Trashmaid> Was nothing, really. Welcome.